Tibetan / Vajrayana

Vajrayana Buddhism is most closely associated with Tibet and can be characterized by the figure of the siddha, the master whose spiritual realization is so profound that he or she has power over the phenomenal world, and in whom the profundity and vastness of absolute truth is fully and completely manifested. Many of our most well-known authors come from this tradition of Tibetan Buddhism .

[Note: The tags for the various schools are not definitive as many books span multiple traditions, etc. They are meant to use as a starting point for exploring this collection.]

The Gangama Instructions with Commentary

All lineages of Mahamudra meditation have their source in a verse teaching—a “song of realization”—sung by the Mahasiddha Tilopa to his disciple Naropa on the banks of the Ganges River more than a thousand years ago. Since that time,… Read More

The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma

This comprehensive guide to the body of Buddhist teachings known as the mahayana brings together theory and practice in a way that reveals contemplative experience to be inseparable from the traditional concepts used to describe it. Based on teachings from… Read More

The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma

This comprehensive guide to the body of Buddhist teachings known as the hinayana brings together theory and practice in a way that reveals contemplative experience to be inseparable from the traditional concepts used to describe it. Based on teachings from… Read More

An Answer to Pope John Paul II's Criticism of Buddhism

Welcoming Flowers is a pointed critique of the Buddhism chapter of Pope John Paul II’s 1994 best seller, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, written by the highly respected Buddhist teacher Thinley Norbu. In responding to the false charges of Buddhists’… Read More

Teachings from Women Who Are Shaping Buddhism in the West

Buddhism began to take root in the West at just the same time that women’s voices were arising to find expression here—after millennia of being relegated to the background. If that was a coincidence, it was an auspicious one,… Read More

A Retreat with Pema Chodron on Practicing the Way of the Bodhisattva

Compassion is a skill. You can learn it here and now, and the benefits are vast. In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön shows you how—using a text that is very close to her heart: the Buddhist classic known as The… Read More

A Retreat with Pema Chodron on Practicing the Way of the Bodhisattva

Compassion is a skill. You can learn it here and now, and the benefits are vast. In this recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön shows you how—using a text that is very close to her heart: the Buddhist classic known as The… Read More

An Introduction to Tsong-kha-pa's Classic Text The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment

When the Dalai Lama was forced to go into exile in 1959, he could take only a few items with him. Among these cherished belongings was his copy of Tsong-kha-pa’s classic text The Great Treatise on the Stages of… Read More

The Omniscient Dharma King of the Vast Expanse

Renowned as a peerless teacher, practitioner, and scholar, Longchenpa thoroughly studied and mastered every one of the many Buddhist vehicles and lineages of teachings existing in Tibet at his time. Through his radiant intellect and meditative accomplishment, in both… Read More

The Mahamudra Prayer by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje is a short yet thorough and profound text which presents all the essential points of Mahamudra teaching in terms of view, practice, and fruition. It is a classic that, especially in… Read More

Dakini Sukha Vajra, widely known as Sera Khandro, wrote this commentary of an account by the great Dudjom Lingpa of visions he had of enlightened beings and the teachings he received from them regarding our perception of reality.

The Autobiography of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang

Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, also known as Khenpo Ngakchung or Khenpo Ngaga, was one of the great masters in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. He was an extremely influential teacher who taught some of… Read More

Buddhist Meditation from the Ground Up

Developing an effective meditation practice is the first step toward discerning the true nature of mind and reality as taught by Buddha Shakyamuni. In Stillness, Insight, and Emptiness, Lama Dudjom Dorjee offers instructions that will help beginning meditators establish a… Read More

with Uncertainty and Change

We live in difficult times. Life sometimes seems like a turbulent river threatening to drown us and destroy the world. Why, then, shouldn’t we cling to the certainty of the shore—to our familiar patterns and habits? Because, Pema Chödrön teaches,… Read More

Teachings on the Songs of Jigten Sumgon and Milarepa

Spiritual teachings in the form of songs—spontaneous expressions of deep wisdom and understanding that reveal the nature of reality—have been treasured since the dawn of Buddhism in India. In Opening the Treasure of the Profound, Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen translates nine… Read More